Jury must now determine if Nathaniel Fujita was insane when he killed Lauren Astley

A Middlesex Superior Court jury will now have to decide if Lauren Astley's death was a premeditated, cold-blooded murder fueled by rage and rejection or the act of a man suffering a brief psychotic episode forged by depression and head injuries.

By Norman Miller/Daily News staff

MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

By Norman Miller/Daily News staff

Posted Mar. 6, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 6, 2013 at 6:05 AM

By Norman Miller/Daily News staff

Posted Mar. 6, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 6, 2013 at 6:05 AM

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Nathaniel Fujita killed Lauren Astley on July 3, 2011.

Now, a Middlesex Superior Court jury will have to decide if her death was a premeditated, cold-blooded murder fueled by rage and rejection or the act of a man suffering a brief psychotic episode forged by depression and head injuries.

On Tuesday, prosecutor Lisa McGovern and defense attorney William Sullivan both rested their cases after nearly three weeks of testimony in Fujita's murder trial and then gave closing arguments.

McGovern told the jury that the defense was trying to combine normal things, such as Fujita playing football, smoking marijuana and being upset that Astley broke up with him "into a mental illness defense."

Fujita's actions after he strangled the 18-year-old Astley with a bungee cord and then repeatedly slashed her throat are proof that he was thinking clearly, not in the midst of psychotic episode, she said. After he killed Astley, Fujita moved her car to a local beach, threw her keys into a storm drain, dumped her body in a Wayland marsh and then came home to clean up and shower.

"Say what you will about tooth fairies, or fairy godmothers - There is no psychosis fairy who magically sprinkles a temporary dose of psychoses on this defendant," said McGovern. "It goes against everything we know scientifically about psychosis. It’s driving a car, it’s putting a body in a car, it’s disposing of that body. It’s driving home."

Fujita was questioned three times on July 3 and July 4 by Wayland Police looking for his missing ex-girlfriend, she reminded jurors.

McGovern also spoke of the cruelty of the death. At one point, she wrapped the bungee cord Fujita used to kill Astley around her own throat. She dropped to her knees in the courtroom, telling the jury to think about the young woman's injuries, including a bruised knee, bruises on her arm as well as the injuries from being strangled and slashed.

"Was she struggling to survive?" said McGovern. "Well, why is there a cut across her shoulder? Why is there a hematoma? Why the abrasions? Why the contusions? Why the jagged cuts? It didn't take seconds for her to die. It took at least minutes."

McGovern also questioned the testimony of the defense expert, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Wade Myers. She said his answers were often evasive, and he completely ignored signs of the anger Fujita showed toward Astley after the break-up.

She called Myers an "academic" while she said prosecution witness psychiatrist Dr. Alison Fife, was a "real doctor with a real practice."

In his testimony, Myers pointed to Fujita's assertion that he was suicidal and had suffered head injuries over the years as the basis of his opinion that Fujita was not criminally responsible. McGovern said there was never any report of those until after Fujita was arrested and "he was trying to get out of something."

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McGovern said Astley went to Fujita's 108 West Plain St. home on July 3 to check up on him because she was worried because he was not hanging out with their friends anymore.

Sullivan, in his closing, agreed that Fujita did kill Astley, but contends he is not criminally responsible.

"I understand that's not a popular position," he said. "I understand some of you may not be comfortable with it. It may bother you."

However, he said, the jury agreed to "apply the law in an unsympathetic way to both sides."

Sullivan asked the jury to take a look at the two expert witnesses' qualifications. Myers, he said, was an expert in adolescent psychiatry, as well as a forensic psychiatrist who is a professor at Brown University and has written numerous peer-reviewed journals about crime committed by adolescents.

Fife, Sullivan said, is a general practice psychiatrist whose certification in forensic psychiatry expired in 2004.

The concern about Fujita did not start after he killed Astley, Sullivan told jurors. His family had become concerned about his behavior weeks before, and even brought him to a psychiatrist on June 15, 2011.

"You've heard his mother was concerned, his aunt was concerned, his cousin was concerned," Sullivan said. "Remember what happened in June 2011. It had reached critical mass so that the family and friends did something."

That psychiatrist diagnosed Fujita with a major depressive disorder, a diagnosis with which Myers agreed, Sullivan said.

"You have reasonable doubt if you can't decide between the two doctors," he said.

Sullivan also disagreed there was any evidence of pre-planning, or of Fujita being organized.

"The commonwealth says this is a well-thought-out case. That is absurd, absolutely absurd," he said. "There is no planning. The place where this killing occurred is in this garage, with one of the doors open. This is the last place that if somebody was planning this would occur. This was a brief, immediate psychotic episode. There was no planning."

Sullivan said there was no evidence rage was a factor. He said if it was a murder caused in rage, a neighbor would have heard something, but no one did.

Sullivan reminded the jurors they had to do their duty, and ignore their feelings and to return what he called the "difficult verdict."

"I'm asking you to live up to what you said before that you would be able to apply the law without the sympathy, without the anger," said Sullivan. "You told us you'd be able to do that."

The jury of eight men and four women will have a choice of four verdicts - guilty of first-degree murder, guilty of second-degree murder, not guilty and not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsbility.

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Jurors will begin their deliberation today.

For up-to-date trial news, follow Norman Miller on Twitter at @Norman_MillerMW, #fujitatrial, or follow the life Fujita trial blog at www.metrowestdailynews.com.